The Meaning of Tingo: And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World

Overview

A garden of delights for the word obsessed: a funny, amazing, and even profound world tour of the best of all those strange words that don't have a precise English equivalent, the ones that tell us so much about other cultures' priorities and preoccupations and expand our minds.
Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault ? That there's no Italian equivalent for the word blue ? That the Dutch word for skimming stones is plimpplamppletteren ? This delightful book, which draws on the collective wisdom of more than 254 languages, includes not only those words for which there is no direct counterpart in English ( pana po'o in Hawaiian means to scratch your head in order to remember something important), but also a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow and the longest known palindrome in any language ( saippuakivikauppias --Finland).
And all right, what in fact is tingo ? In the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it's to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them. Well, of course it is. Enhanced by its ingenious and irresistible little Schott's Miscellany/Eats Shoots and Leaves package and piquant black-and-white illustrations throughout, The Meaning of Tingo is a heady feast for word lovers of all persuasions. Viva Tingo!

Full Product Details

Author:   Adam Jacot De Boinod
Publisher:   Penguin Press
Imprint:   Penguin Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 18.40cm
Weight:   0.295kg
ISBN:  

9781594200861

ISBN 10:   1594200866
Pages:   209
Publication Date:   16 March 2006
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In stock at warehouse  
We have this item in stock and it will be shipped directly from our warehouse.

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